People of any age, gender, and race experience any of a number of types of pain at various times. Sometimes, this pain is chronic, occurring regularly, and other times this pain is temporary and occurs randomly. In the United States and a number of other countries, a common remedy for relieving pain is medicine. Some medicine can be bought over-the-counter (without a prescription), but such medicine is generally not very strong and so cannot effectively treat more acute pain. Other medicine can only be bought legally with a doctor's prescription. While prescription medicine can effectively treat acute pain, many prescription drugs can have adverse side effects, such as causing addiction and/or damaging an organ.